"Pablo Picasso's masterpiece Femme a la montre (1932) has reached $139.4 million - the second highest price the artist has ever achieved at auction and the most valuable work sold at auction this year," auction house Sotheby's said in a statement today.
One of the 20th century's best-known painters, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) depicted Marie-Therese Walter, whom he described as his lover and muse, in Femme a la montre, which translates as Woman with a Clock.
Sotheby's auction house auctioned the painting as part of the collection of art collector Emily Fisher Landau. Landau reportedly purchased the painting in 1968.
Editor: John Wickey